


sky full of song

by pollutedrain



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Anal Sex, Angst, Asphyxiation, M/M, Moderate Violence, Romance, Sailors, Sirens, Smut, an assortment of members are mentioned, but i tagged the main characters, kind of, only just mentioned but just in case
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:20:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27802195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pollutedrain/pseuds/pollutedrain
Summary: “Why did you save me?” Johnny asks, barely audible over a distant peal of thunder.The sky above them is an almost violent shade of pink, a vibrant forewarning of the storm to come, and the dying light of the setting sun leaves the siren’s hair ablaze with colour.Johnny knows then, in that moment, that he’s doomed.“Because I wanted you to be mine.” Jaehyun eventually answers him.(Alternatively: Johnny finds that a siren's song ends in something much more painful than just a watery grave.)
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Suh Youngho | Johnny
Comments: 12
Kudos: 143
Collections: Coffee Dates Fest [1st Round]





	sky full of song

**Author's Note:**

> #0029: Johnny is a sailor and his ships sinks due to sirens songs. All his mates are dragged to the bottom of the ocean but one of the merman decides to save him.
> 
> \- 
> 
> ahhh what a wild ride this was to write! fantasy/anything to do with mythology aus are my absolute favourite to read, so i'm excited to finally have chance to write my own. i hope you enjoy reading this as much as i enjoyed writing it. thank you to my fellow writer kate for keeping me company as i churned this out in a frenzy over the past week.
> 
> to the writer of this prompt: thank you so much for entering this prompt! i hope you don't mind that i tweaked it ever so slightly, the opportunity to make johnny a captain instead of just a sailor was too good to pass up. 
> 
> **please note** : this work has sirens as the centre plot point, so there is a lot of discussion about drowning/death by drowning. similarly, there are mentions of a character getting injured, hence i've tagged this with moderate violence just to be on the safe side. please remember this if anything like that makes you uncomfortable!

The sun is warm against Johnny’s face as he gazes out over the endless blue of the ocean. 

It felt like they had been at sea forever - not quite as long as last time, if he remembers correctly - but still making it possibly weeks since any of them had last seen land. It wasn’t too much of a concern to him, after all, it had been a recurring joke throughout his life that he was born to be at sea rather on land. And besides that, both he and his crew had known they were in for a long journey when they’d agreed to embark on this whole adventure. 

Still, he found himself rather glad to be finally heading home to a bed on solid land and a town he could walk around early in the mornings, just how he liked. He knew that the rest of the crew were possibly even more excited - Mark hadn’t stopped talking about how much he was looking forward to being back in his fiancé’s arms. The thought of watching them reunite made him smile. 

Pushing off from the railing, he waves to Yuta as he passes the other man standing at the helm. 

“All good?”

The other man nods, raising a hand to shield his eyes from the sun.

“We’re on course as we have been the entire time, we should hit land in about a week if we keep up at this pace.”

Johnny grins in response to the news.

“Great job, I can always rely on you, Yuta.” He replies, laughing at the cheeky salute the other man gives him. 

As they sail past an unusual-looking rock formation, Johnny realises with a frown that it’s been a while since he updated the journal he keeps whenever they’re away at sea. Casting a quick look around him, he nods to himself as he notes that everything seems to be running as it should be, his crew more than capable. 

As such, he’s happy to duck below deck in search of his journal, sure he’d left it in the kitchen or somewhere like that. He’s wandering through the corridors, trying to remember exactly where he could have misplaced it, when he hears it.

“Johnny?”

The undercurrent of concern in the way Taeyong calls his name gives him pause, and he immediately abandons his task to go find his first-mate instead. 

The other man stands at the large table that sits in the middle of his cabin. The surface is cluttered, covered in unfurled maps and star charts held down by a variety of navigational instruments. Taeyong looks up from where he’d tracing a line along their main map with his finger.

“What’s wrong?” Johnny asks, boots heavy against the wooden floor as he crosses the room. 

“I… I don’t exactly know,” Taeyong frowns, turning the parchment in front of him so they can both study it easier. “Look.”

Johnny stares at the map, puzzled. He’s not sure exactly _what_ Taeyong wants him to look at, everything looks the same as it always does. Nothing more than a carefully drawn nautical chart, one of their crew’s finest possessions. 

“Taeyong…” He warns. 

It’s not the first time his first mate has acted like this: a little erratic and off-kilter. It usually means that he’s just in need of a decent night’s sleep. Hell, they all are at this point, Johnny already close to nodding off in the warmth of the cabin, lulled by the gentle waves far down below him. 

“Stop that,” Taeyong snaps, cutting him off as he jabs a finger down at the parchment. “Just _look_.”

Johnny rolls his eyes but entertains him, leaning down until he can see each individual ink stroke in detail. When, yet again, nothing changes, he sighs, moving to stand up straight once more. But then something catches his eye. 

It’s slight, very much a sort of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, but it’s there. The lines on the map seem to be _alive_ , pulsating as if powered by a heartbeat of their own. Johnny watches in awe as a faint glimmer passes over the map, moving corner to corner, its contents appearing to follow it. The lines and drawings dance around the paper with an eerie grace, moving to a song that neither of them can hear. 

When everything settles again it’s with a flourish, and Johnny can’t help but notice that everything seems to have moved at least a few centimetres to the left, rendering their map essentially useless.

“Taeyong…” He murmurs, afraid to speak any louder. “What… What was that?”

“I don’t know,” Taeyong replies, equally as hushed. He’s staring at the map as though afraid it’ll attack one of them. “That’s the third time it’s happened, I could hardly believe my eyes the first two times.”

 _No wonder he called me in here_ , Johnny thinks to himself. He wouldn’t have trusted just his own eyes either, if it were him. 

He’s distracted by the way Taeyong inhales sharply, hands shaking as he pulls their star chart up alongside the map in front of him. Johnny watches, forcing himself to resist the urge to pace as Taeyong’s eyes dart back and forth between the two pieces of parchment in front of him.

“It’s all wrong,” The younger man croaks eventually. “The star chart is unchanged but the map- it doesn’t line up anymore.”

Johnny simply stares at him for a moment, the crashing of the waves outside the ship roaring in his ears. 

“What now?” He whispers.

Taeyong lifts his head to meet his gaze, his eyes wide.

“I don’t know.”

The sound of hurried footsteps catches both of their attentions, and Johnny turns just in time to see Mark appear in the doorway.

“ _Captain_ ,” He gasps. “Thank gods you’re here.”

“What’s wrong?” Johnny asks, dread already beginning to settle deep into his stomach. He exchanges a covert look with Taeyong, and sees a similar expression mirrored on his first mate’s face. 

Mark looks between the both of them, chest heaving. He must have run all the way here, and Taeyong’s cabin sits buried deep in the hull. 

“Just… You’re needed on deck, immediately, _please_.”

Johnny doesn’t hesitate before he’s following the younger man back through the ship, Taeyong trailing behind them in worry. He throws a last look over his shoulder at the map on the table, taking in the way it seems to _glow_ in the sunlight pouring in through the windows.

-

When they first emerge back on deck, nothing seems to be amiss. His crew mill about as they had done before, occupied by the duties they’d been assigned to. His ship, his beloved Neo glides through the water easily, still following the path they’d set however long ago when they’d first pushed off from land. 

Then, the noise of a gull crying overhead cuts through the peace of the moment, and everything seems to fall apart in front of Johnny’s eyes.

He bounds up the stairs to where he’d left Yuta at the helm before he’d gone inside. Just as he reaches the top step, the ship makes a sudden and unprecedented sharp turn, almost sending him flying back down and into a stack of crates tethered at the base of the staircase. Johnny curses under his breath, fighting to keep on his feet as he pulls himself up.

Yuta stares dutifully ahead, eyes trained on the water even as his hands hover in the air just above where the wheel is spinning uncontrollably. Johnny pushes him aside as gently as he can manage, grip white-knuckled on the wood as he takes his place back at the helm. It’s a struggle, the wheel refusing to budge, as though another invisible pair of hands refuse to yield to him. 

Johnny grits his teeth, steering with all his strength until the spokes snap off in his hands.

“ _Fuck._ ” He whispers to himself, staring at the wood in despair. 

Sensing movement behind him, he turns to watch as Yuta sets off down the ship, walking as though compelled to do so by some secret higher power. There’s a glazed look to his expression, mouth slack and slightly open, that has Johnny holding his breath. What on earth could be going on here? “Taeyong!” He cries, hoping his first-mate is right behind him.

Thankfully he is, the smaller man taking the stairs two at once to join him.

“What’s- _Oh_.” He gasps, eyes trained on the spinning wheel. 

Johnny quickly finds that that’s the least of their worries, as he watches with horror as Yuta climbs up the side of the ship, balancing precariously on the railing. He and Taeyong watch in terror as the ship lurches suddenly, right at the same moment that Yuta deliberately jumps down, disappearing into the water below. 

He barely hears Taeyong’s distraught gasp, drowned out by another sound that starts off quiet, before quickly building to a roar in his ears. 

It’s the most beautiful song he’s ever heard, a cadenza so perfect that it leaves his head spinning. It feels as though each note resonates somewhere deep inside of him, vibrating hard in his lungs until they ache with it all, overriding all of his senses and leaving him as nothing but a mere vessel for the music. He feels as though if he were to cut himself right now, take a knife to his arm or elsewhere on his body, his veins would bleed open with music.

It’s utterly terrifying, and he’s helpless to try and stop it. 

He’s not sure how long the torture goes on for - it could be hours, days, maybe even years as he waits for it to be over, praying to whatever deity he can think of in the heat of the moment. 

It appears that someone out there is listening as the song is suddenly cut short. In its place, there’s a horrific scraping sound, the noise of wood splintering and breaking as his ship crashes into immovable rock. Johnny finds himself being thrown across the deck, unable to stop himself from falling this time, and the only thing around to break his fall is a barrel that shatters into pieces the second he collides into it. 

Johnny lies there for a few moments, clutching his injured shoulder as he tries to regain his bearings. It takes longer than he’d have wished for him to be able to drag himself to his feet again, his entire body protesting the motion as he stands on shaky legs. 

The deck is a state - littered with broken wood and debris from the ocean. One of the masts has been snapped right in half, the ripped sail flailing in the wind like a desperate flag of surrender. The pain of seeing his ship like this is perhaps worse than the steadily growing ache in his shoulder: he has no idea how on earth they’ll make it out of this mess.

Movement out of the corner of his eye catches his attention, and he turns instinctively to follow it. The crash had left the ship moored on some rocks, tilted off in the direction of the port side just enough that the railings now sit mere feet from the surface of the ocean. But it’s not that that caught his eye. 

There’s something in the water.

Well - not something, but _someone_.

“Hi.” The stranger greets him, as his head breaks through the surface of the water. 

Johnny blinks in confusion at this development. _Where on earth had this man come from?_ As he glances around he notes they’re still nowhere near land, and he can’t see another boat anywhere. It’s not possible that someone would make it this far out just by swimming and still be alive, let alone look as put together as the man currently smiling up at them does.

Something brushes past his arm, startling him out of his thoughts, and he watches warily as Taeyong crosses to the railings, concern etched over every feature of his face.

“Are you okay?” He asks the man in the water. “We’re far away from land, did your boat crash too?” 

The stranger shakes his head, an oily grace to the movement that Johnny immediately dislikes. 

“I’m very much okay,” He croons. “In fact the water’s perfectly fine, why don’t you both join me?”

Taeyong frowns, turning back to look at Johnny, who immediately shakes his head in reply. Staying on the ship, wrecked as it is, is very much their best bet for survival. Who knows what lurks in these waters. 

“I… I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Taeyong responds, a frown forming between his eyebrows. 

Johnny finds himself stepping forward, suddenly painfully aware of how close his friend stands to the water’s edge. The last thing he needs is for Taeyong to fall in, leaving him needing to follow. He’s not sure how his injured shoulder would hold up to that much strain.

As he does so, the stranger in the water sighs, a weary noise.

“A shame,” He comments, turning his head to gaze out over the horizon. “You could have made things so much more pleasant for yourselves.”

“Huh?” Is all Taeyong manages to reply with, before the air is suddenly filled once again with the melody from earlier.

This time Johnny is ready, and he manages to cover his ears just in time, before his vision can white out as it had done before. It’s not perfect - strains of the song still leak through, but it’s much more manageable this time.

The man in the water watches them, lips curled up into a near-permanent smirk. He closes his eyes, head tilted back ever so slightly as he sings along in time to the music. His voice is mesmerising- it blends in with the song perfectly, as though it had been written for him. 

He reaches out a hand suddenly, the movement startling Johnny, and it’s then that he realises Taeyong stands enthralled by the man’s singing. His friend wears an expression similar to the one that Yuta had had on his face just before he jumped, and dread settles heavy into Johnny’s stomach.

“ _Taeyong_.” He breathes. 

His friend turns to look at him, hands curled around the railing in front of him. The glazed look in his eyes makes the hair on the back of Johnny’s neck stand on end.

“I need to help him.” Taeyong gasps, moving with the clear intention to jump into the water.

Johnny snatches hold of the back of his shirt just in time. In doing so, he catches the attention of the young man in the water, his gaze switching from Taeyong to him. The music around them swells, a veritable symphony that echoes off of the ocean around them. 

The man in the water stares at Johnny, smirk slowly growing into a full-blown smile, his teeth bared. Teeth that remind Johnny of a shark, bloodied and dangerously sharp, honed to a point for the purpose of killing prey. His blood runs cold - he knows exactly what sort of creature this is. 

“ _Siren_.” He breathes.

The creature positively _leers_ at him, hands sliding up to cover Taeyong’s on the railing.

“Clever one, aren’t you, Captain?” It smirks, eyes gleaming with something that screams danger.

“Let him _go._ ” Johnny hisses in reply, tightening his grip on his friend’s shirt.

“I don’t think I will,” The siren responds in a sing-song tone of voice. “In fact, I think I’ll take my time with him, then come back for you, won’t that be nice?”

Before Johnny can reply the siren tips its head back, letting out a hideous shriek that leaves the ringing in his ears so loud he wouldn’t be surprised if he’d gone deaf. Instinctively he pulls his hand back to his uncovered ear, trying to block out as much of the noise as possible and, in doing so, he lets go of Taeyong.

It’s as if time slows to a crawl as he watches the siren’s hands come up to clutch at his friend’s face, claw-like nails digging into the soft skin of his cheeks. It pulls Taeyong towards the water, arms wrapping around him possessively as it drags Johnny’s dearest friend down into the depths of the ocean.

Johnny doesn’t hesitate before he’s following, one hand on the railing to propel himself into the water after them. 

The siren is fast, much faster than Johnny would have been even in prime condition. Now, with his senses struggling to cope with the endless song that still choruses around him, coupled with his pounding head and injured shoulder, he can barely keep up. It’s not long before the siren and Taeyong disappear completely from sight, leaving Johnny alone in the cold water, fighting to not be overwhelmed by despair. 

He turns to attempt to swim back to the surface, but even as he tries, he knows it’s no use. He’s too far down, limbs too slow and heavy for him to make it back in time. His lungs burn with the need for air as he pushes his body to the limit in one last desperate attempt, even as his vision begins to blur around the edges. All he can hope, as he begins to slowly sink more than swim, is that his friends somehow make it out of this alive. 

The last thing he sees before everything fades to black is a flash of pink, and what looks to be a hand reaching out towards him. 

-

It’s the heat of the sun that wakes him once again. Johnny groans softly, an ache right in the depths of his skull making him reluctant to open his eyes.

He feels around him blindly - from what he can tell, he’s laid on his back, something soft underneath him. There’s a ringing in his ears, an echoing after-effect of the siren song from before, and the pain in his head amplifies, making him hiss. He stretches out gingerly, careful in case he has any extra injuries to worry about. His shoulder aches with the memory of his fall, and it’s with that that he opens his eyes to stare at a ceiling made of rock.

He appears to be in a cave, arranged to turn the space into a makeshift bedroom. He’s laid out on a bed, the mattress soft underneath him, and when he convinces his body to sit up he realises that a pillow had been placed under his head. The blankets that had been pulled over him pool in his lap as he does so, and he finds himself momentarily distracted by how delicate the material is, like nothing he’d ever seen before. 

_How did he get here?_

Johnny frowns to himself as he looks around, trying to find an entrance. 

The cave is pretty sparse - the majority of it taken up by a large pool, the water lapping gently at the rocky shore line. The ‘room’ he finds himself in is little more than the bed he sits on, raised up by a natural platform in the rock bed, and what looks to be a dresser and mirror pushed up against the cave wall. There’s a gap in the ceiling above him, a natural skylight that the sun beams through, but he’d struggle to fit his head through it if he tried. 

He’s about to get up and explore when a piece of material he’d assumed to be no more than decoration hanging next to the mirror suddenly twitches, a hand appearing to curl around it and draw it back. It reveals an archway built into the stone, and a figure ducks out from underneath the curtain. 

Johnny’s eyes widen as the stranger steps out of the shadows, bathed in the sunlight streaming into the cave.

The newcomer is a young man that stands tall and proud, not quite as tall as Johnny is himself, he thinks, but enough so that Johnny has to look up at him from his position on the bed. He’s broad, the thin gauzy material that serves him as a shirt stretched tight across the muscles of his body, but there’s still a lightness to his limbs that makes Johnny want to reach out and touch him, confirm to himself that he’s real.

Johnny’s eyes roam over the man’s body, up towards his head. When he reaches his face he lets out a breath he wasn’t aware he’d even been holding. The man is heart achingly beautiful, soft brown eyes and plush lips set into a face so perfect it would turn anyone’s head. Johnny had read about the gods growing up, and he’s taken with the thought that this could well be one standing in front of him right now. 

Even his hair looks other-worldly, curled over his forehead, a soft shade of pink that reminds Johnny of the sunset, or the inside of a conch shell he’d plucked from the sand. He briefly wonders if he’d also hit his head when he’d fallen, and this was all just a concussion-induced dream. After all, there’s no way the man standing opposite him could be anything but a figment of his imagination. 

“You’re beautiful.” He breathes unwillingly, as though the words had been stolen from his lungs. 

The man ducks his head shyly, cheeks turning almost the same shade as his hair.

“Thank you.” He mumbles, barely audible, so Johnny has to strain to hear it. 

It gives Johnny pause. There’s something about the other man’s voice that sends a shiver down his spine - deep, but with an unnatural quality to it. He frowns. 

“Where am I?”

“My… My home.” The man replies, louder this time, a lilt to his words that has Johnny freezing up.

 _Siren_ , his brain screams at him.

Of course the man (should he even be calling him that?) in front of him is inhumanly beautiful - he’s _not_ human. And Johnny is very much in danger once more, literally cornered with no hope of escape. Even if there were a chance he could overpower the siren, injured as he is, their proximity to the water greatly lessens his chances of survival.

The siren must see him stiffen up, as he holds up both his hands in a gesture of peace.

“I’m not going to hurt you, I promise.” He blurts out.

“And how do I know that?” Johnny glares, shifting further up the bed and away from the siren.

As he moves, he remembers the knife he keeps squirreled away in one of his boots, and he wonders if he’ll be able to grab it in time. 

“Why would I have bothered bringing you here, then?” The siren snaps in reply, that facade of loveliness slipping ever-so-slightly. “You were heavy, I could’ve saved myself some work.”

“I don’t know,” Johnny shrugs, bristling in offence. “Maybe you wanted to save me for later after you crashed my ship and _killed my friends_!”

The siren opens his mouth as if to argue further, before the fight seems to leave him, his shoulders drooping.

“I didn’t kill your friends.” He mumbles, after a beat.

The dejected look on his face does something funny to Johnny’s heart, something sad and a little painful, but he forces himself to ignore it. His mind is full of the memory of Taeyong being dragged down into the dark depths of the ocean, their other crew-mates no doubt following without Johnny there to protect them, and it leaves anger burning hot in his veins.

“ _Really_ ,” He hisses, surprised by the venom in his voice. “I suppose they just drowned themselves for the fun of it then?”

The siren stares at him for a few moments, just long enough to make Johnny begin to feel uncomfortable over his own outburst. 

“I-” He begins, stopping and frowning at his reflection in the mirror. “My brothers, they-”

The siren sighs, cutting himself off. Johnny watches, every part of his body on edge, as he crosses over to the edge of the pool, barely taking a step down into the water before he’s turning to address Johnny once more.

“Wait here.” He instructs firmly, diving into the water and disappearing from sight before the human has a chance to protest. 

“ _Wait here,”_ Johnny mocks, grumbling to the empty room. “Like I can even go anywhere.”

When he’s still alone after a few minutes, he decides the best course of action is to heave himself up from the bed, even as his limbs protest the very idea of moving. He might as well explore while he can - maybe he’ll miraculously find a way out before the siren comes back and inevitably kills him. 

Eyeing the water with suspicion, he crouches down next to the shoreline. He briefly entertains the idea of just diving in after the siren - after all, he’s a strong swimmer when the supernatural isn’t involved, can cut through most currents like they’re absolutely nothing. There’s been more than one occasion when he’s been fighting his way through the ocean during a storm, fixing something on the ship’s keel, and come out with barely a scratch on him. 

He dips his fingers into the water, watching the ripples that form outward as he swirls his hand around. It’s a deep blue, almost black colour that he’s never seen before in any body of water he’s come across. It’s miles away from the gentle blue-green it had been mere minutes ago. Every drop of it screams that he should stay away. 

Johnny sighs to himself. He’d never considered himself particularly superstitious, but he does know a bad omen when he sees one, and this could only be a sign that he shouldn’t do anything reckless. 

Standing back up, he decides that checking out the curtain the siren had appeared from behind is his next best bet. He pulls it back, balling it up and tucking it behind the mirror to keep it out of his way, before he ducks through the archway. 

Inside, he finds another smaller room, this one fully carved out of the rock of the cave. Unlike the bedroom, this one lacks a skylight, instead featuring a fireplace where a fire that produces no smoke burns away merrily. Johnny blinks at it in surprise, leaning in to investigate. It’s hot like he would expect it to be, but when he experimentally reaches out a hand he finds that he comes away unburnt.

“Magic.” He mumbles to himself. “Or maybe something a little more like witchcraft.”

The rest of the room isn’t as interesting, mainly taken up by a large couch clearly made for reclining. A bookshelf sits to the left of it and Johnny pauses to scan over the titles on the shelves, surprised to see a range of maps and atlases there. He’d never known sirens could read in general, let alone read maps and charts like a sailor could, but he can’t think of any other explanation for the book’s presence in the room. 

_Trophies_ , a voice deep in the recesses of his mind supplies. 

Grimacing, he leaves the room as quickly as he’d entered it. 

He must doze off again at some point, as it’s night when he next opens his eyes.

Unsure of what woke him, Johnny frowns to himself as he sits back up. The room is pitch black, save for the moonlight that trickles in through the skylight above him, sparkling as it dances off of the surface of the water. He watches it, rather enjoying the spectacle of it all. He also wonders briefly if the siren from before had returned while he was asleep, the idea of the creature creeping around him while he was unaware unnerving to him. 

As if answering his silent question, the water at the pool’s edge starts to bubble, breaking through the tranquility of the cave. Through the darkness, Johnny is just able to make out that the siren has now actually returned to him, pulling himself onto land with little effort at all. He glances about the room, an almost unreadable expression on his face, before he catches sight of Johnny watching him from the bed. 

Somehow the siren looks even more beautiful in the nighttime, light from the moon cast over his skin, making it glow. He runs his fingers through his hair, pushing the soaked pink strands away from his face in a way that only serves to further highlight the angles of his cheekbones. Johnny finds himself hypnotised, no matter his ill-feelings towards the siren.

 _He really is lovely,_ he thinks to himself, watching the figure at the water’s edge slowly sink down to sit there. They’re both quiet for a while, an awkward silence stretching between them, but just as Johnny is about to break it and ask where the siren had disappeared off to, he speaks up himself.

“Your friends are safe. I just went to check on them.”

Johnny feels the tension - tension he hadn’t realised had even seized hold of his body - bleed out of him. He leans back against the headboard of the bed, letting the words sink in. His friends were _alive_ , and hopefully they’d be reunited sooner rather than later.

The siren continues. 

“I’ve had to hide them away from my brothers, but they’ll be safe for now. I promise.”

“Thank you.” Johnny replies, trying his best to sound sincere. Even if the siren is part of the reason he and his friends ended up at the bottom of the ocean, he was always raised to be polite. 

“Your ship though…” The siren frowns over at him. “It’s got a hole in it.”

The bluntness of his words startles a laugh out of Johnny.

“I’m quite aware,” He can’t help but smile, missing the way the siren’s eyes widen. “I think you’re to blame for that, too.”

“Not me!” The siren immediately interjects. “It was my brothers! I was swimming home when I saw your ship go down, I had nothing to do with sinking your ship.”

Johnny can’t help but chuckle more at the hurt expression on the siren’s face, expression dissolving into a pout. It’s not something he’d ever expect to see on such a creature, and he suddenly feels an overwhelming wave of something that might be fondness wash over him. Which is a ridiculous thought, really, considering the figure opposite him would probably eat him when given the chance.

 _Except he didn’t_ , that voice in the back of his head reminds him. _You’re still alive_.

Which is a good point, actually. Why _is_ he still alive?

“Siren-” He begins with a frown, before he’s being cut off.

“My name is Jaehyun.” The siren, Jaehyun, informs him, skipping a pebble across the water.

Johnny watches it go until it sinks into the pool with a resounding _splash_.

“Jaehyun, sorry,” He remedies. “Why am I alive? Your… brothers? Had more than enough of a chance to drown me while they were there.

“Ah…” If Johnny squints in the minimal light, he can just about make out that the tips of Jaehyun’s ears are burning red. “Because I saved you.”

“You saved me? Why?

To his surprise, Jaehyun lets out a soft groan of embarrassment, tipping his head back while he covers his face with his hands. Johnny watches in a mixture of amusement and dazedness, fascinated by the siren’s reaction. Sirens by nature were direct and confident in their approaches - he struggled to imagine Jaehyun blushing wildly as he pulled an unsuspecting sailor to their death. 

“Because _you’re_ beautiful.”

Now _he_ finds himself caught off guard, breath hitching as Jaehyun peeks at him through the gaps between his fingers. 

It’s not like he’d ever thought himself unattractive: growing up he’d had plenty of admirers, and many flings that were born from such attention, but with him always being at sea now it had been so long since he’d let anyone be interested in him. Perhaps even longer still that he’d been interested in anyone in return. 

But still, he would never have expected to be the subject of a siren’s attention, not unless he was being viewed as a meal. 

“I…” He begins, before the words die in his throat. He’s unsure of exactly what he’d wanted to say, anyways, struggling to put his thoughts into words. 

Jaehyun continues, his words slightly muffled from how his face remains covered.

“I was swimming home when I saw my brothers go after your ship - I only came for a closer look, but then I saw you and I… I knew I had to save you.”

Johnny finds his own cheeks reddening, skin hot to the touch when he presses his finger tips against a cheek experimentally. There’s just something about the fever of the siren’s words that has him inexplicably flustered. 

“I just couldn’t let you die like that, at least not at the hand of my brothers.” He persists, wrinkling his nose as though his siblings were a fate worse than death. 

“Thank you for that, I didn’t fancy being eaten.” Johnny jokes. “I can’t imagine I’d taste nice anyway.”

Jaehyun fixes him with a burning look that disappears in the blink of an eye before he has a chance to process it. He watches as the siren stands up, the wet fabric of his pants clinging to surprisingly muscular thighs. He tries not to stare. 

“I’ve arranged for your ship to be repaired, it should take a couple of weeks at most.”

“Oh?” Johnny can’t help but feel surprised at that. He’d fully expected to have to escape here through a different means, even as the apparent source of Jaehyun’s affections. 

“I convinced my father that I wanted it as a trophy,” Jaehyun preens, clearly happy with his plan. “Once it’s fixed I’ll find a way to get it out and your friends onto it so you can all get away. But only in exchange for a favour.”

“A favour?” 

Jaehyun bites his bottom lip, suddenly looking unsure of himself. Quite the change from the pride that had been practically radiating off of him mere moments ago.

“Stay with me? While you wait?”

Johnny would be lying to himself if he said he hadn’t been expecting something like that. 

He lets his gaze drift off to the water, watching it glimmer under the moon. It’s not the worst suggestion he could have thought of, after all, if they’re anywhere remotely near where Johnny’s ship crashed they’re miles away from civilisation. The idea of being stuck in this cave doesn’t exactly thrill him, but surely he could stick it out for a short period of time if it meant he was near to his friends. 

Besides, it’s not as though getting to look at Jaehyun for weeks on end was the worst idea in the world. 

So he nods in reply, watching in awe as a dazzling smile spreads over the siren’s face. It’s brighter than anything he’s ever seen, putting both the sun and moon to shame, and it leaves him yearning for more.

“Thank you,” Jaehyun near whispers. “Thank you, Johnny.”

“You’re welcome,” Johnny replies, equally as hushed for whatever reason, before he frowns in realisation. “Wait, how do you know my name?”

Jaehyun just smiles at him cheekily, disappearing with a wink into the room with the fireplace before Johnny can say another word.

-

To his surprise, he warms up to Jaehyun pretty fast.

“I’m sorry about this,” The siren mumbles, wringing his hands together as he visits Johnny on his third day cooped up in the cave. “I know it’s not ideal, but I don’t want you running into one of my brothers, they’d definitely try and eat you.”

“It’s fine.” Johnny replies, even though it kind of isn’t. This is the direct opposite of what he’s used to.

He’s never been one for being inside for extended amounts of time, known for being out and about on the water the second he could sail a boat by himself. Nothing had changed as he’d gotten older either - instead he’d left home to become a sailor, eventually graduating to captain, forever in search of his next adventure. 

In comparison, Jaehyun’s cave was small, the only part of his kingdom that sat above water. Even then, it was only accessible through a series of underwater passages, too long and winding for Johnny, as strong a swimmer as he was. Aside from a small, uninhabited island nearby, the only thing around them was the endless ocean, stretching as far as his weak human eyes could see. 

Johnny entertains the idea of asking Jaehyun if he could spend the rest of his stay here on said island once he finds out about its existence, a chance to sleep out under the stars just how he likes. He knows he’ll be safe from Jaehyun’s brothers there, the siren having informed him that he’s the only one of the three that doesn’t mind leaving the safety of the water to explore on land. But Jaehyun rejects his plan the second he suggests it to him.

“There’s meant to be a storm coming, if the ocean is correct,” He replies. “It’ll last for a good few weeks, and there’s no shelter on the island. You’d be a fool.”

So that puts an end to that idea, as much as Johnny sulks about it.

Thankfully Jaehyun takes pity on him, growing confident enough to attempt to sneak him back out into the open air after Johnny had been stuck in the cave for nearly a week. 

“I had to wait until my brothers went out.” He explains to Johnny as he pulls him out of the tunnel they’d just exited. 

Johnny shakes his head, feeling the enchantment Jaehyun had placed on him to help him breathe during their journey wear off like it was being carried away by the waves. The sun beams down on them, bright and welcoming, and the siren watches as he tips his head back to revel in how good it feels against his skin.

They end up on the island anyway, exploring a series of rock pools that Jaehyun had come across on his last visit. He sits one now, soaking himself in the water there as he watches Johnny clambering over the rocks.

“It’s nice to be here with company,” He admits. “I’m usually on my own, it gets a little lonely after a while.”

“Do you not spend time with your brothers?” Johnny asks, looking up from where he’d been combing through a patch of sand, trying to unearth anything of interest.

Jaehyun shakes his head in reply, making his curls bounce. Johnny watches, something foreign and unexplored stirring deep within him at the sight. He ignores it.

“I’ve just always been more of a loner.”

“How come?”

From what he’d learnt about sirens over the years he already knew that they tended to move like they were pack animals, sticking together in a group whenever they went on a hunt to make that characteristic frenzied descent much easier. The idea of one isolating himself was at odds with all that.

“They’re a… little too much for me. Too violent, and that’s saying something.”

Johnny whistles.

“That bad?”

Jaehyun turns to look up at him, a wry smile on his face and amusement sparkling in his eyes.

“There were originally twelve of us. We’re all that’s left.”

Johnny suddenly finds himself thankful he’d befriended the apparently least bloodthirsty brother. 

-

Jaehyun takes him to see his ship as it’s being fixed, the wreck of his beloved Neo still impaled on the rocks they’d crashed against. 

Johnny observes as men he doesn’t recognise and look all too human to be other sirens wander to and fro, dazed expressions on their faces as they carry wood and work tools. Jaehyun confirms his suspicions. 

“I think Ten pulled them in from a nearby ship,” He whispers, head so close to Johnny’s ear that his breath ghosts over his skin, making him shiver. “It looks like his handiwork, anyway.”

Johnny nods by way of reply, watching as a figure rises from the rocks to leap gracefully into the ocean. When they resurface they’re floating on their back, and Johnny realises he recognises him as the dark-haired siren with the feline smile that had dragged Taeyong into the water days earlier. He wears a similar enough expression now as he sings quietly to himself, the notes barely reaching Johnny’s ears. However, they’re still loud enough that, coupled with the serene expression on the siren’s face, he finds himself feeling strangely restless. 

_He’s beautiful too_ , he thinks to himself as he stares. 

The other siren must be one of Jaehyun’s brothers, or at least another distant relation, he assumes. He’s a different type of beauty compared to Jaehyun, sharper and deadlier where Jaehyun is more ethereal and breath-taking, but that doesn’t do anything to detract from how enticing he is.

“Stop that,” Jaehyun hisses suddenly, snatching hold of his wrist. “He’ll spot you and there’s no way I’ll get both of us out of here in time, he’s faster than me.”

Johnny, completely unaware that he’d been halfway through an attempt to climb over the rocks they were hiding behind, smiles sheepishly at his companion.

“Sorry, I can’t help it.”

“Humans,” Jaehyun mutters, rolling his eyes as he tugs Johnny back into place next to him. He loops his arm through his, pulling him close to his side. “You’re all the same, I swear.”

“Maybe you’re all just too alluring,” Johnny retorts, trying to ignore how his heartbeat picks up at their new proximity. “Our poor feeble hearts don’t stand a chance.”

The jab to the ribs he receives hurts for hours after, and he’s sure to play up the pain whenever Jaehyun glances his way. He tells himself it was worth it though, worth it to see the way Jaehyun’s ears had practically _glowed_ redder than a rose at his words.

-

“Have you always lived here?” He asks Jaehyun, a week or so after the whole Ten incident.

(He’d learnt that it was in fact Jaehyun’s brother they’d been watching when they’d nearly run into him on their way back to the cave. He swore he could still feel Jaehyun’s vice-like grip on his wrist as he’d slept next to him on the bed that night, as if afraid Ten would come back and snatch Johnny away from him under the cover of night.)

“Hm?” Jaehyun sniffs, unfurling himself from where he’d been close to dozing off. 

They’re curled up together on the couch in the second room, the fire burning away in the fireplace opposite them. Johnny’s body feels heavy with the heat, close to falling asleep himself as he flicks through an atlas he’d pulled off the bookshelf.

“What’s the furthest you’ve gone away from the kingdom?” He explains.

“Not far,” Jaehyun replies, sitting up to look at him. “I’ve never felt the need to, I have everything I need right here.”

Johnny watches as the light from the fire dances across the siren’s face, catching onto the warmest tones of his brown eyes. He’s stunning, spell-binding even in the low lighting of the room and, not for the first time, he realises, Johnny wonders if he’ll be eventually sailing away and leaving part of his heart behind him. 

“What about you?” Jaehyun interrupts his daydreaming. “What’s the furthest place you’ve sailed to, oh great Captain?”

Johnny snorts.

“One very far away indeed.” He replies simply, thinking over the voyage before this one, where they’d been at sea for close to two years. 

For the first time, the memories bring about conflicting feelings within him. He yearns to be back at sea, his ship more his home than the house all the way back in his hometown on the coast he stays at in-between voyages. And yet he’s starting to feel perhaps too at home here, tucked away from the world in this tiny cave. 

Or maybe home is quickly becoming something much more tangible, a body that slots against him perfectly as they share a bed, or clings tightly to his arm as they walk across causeways together. 

“I can’t imagine being that far away for that long.” Jaehyun admits, and Johnny can see where he’s coming from. 

For all that he dislikes them, Johnny knows that, deep down, Jaehyun does love his brothers. He loves his father too, and his family’s kingdom at large. This is _his_ home, after all. 

“But maybe…” The siren surprises him by continuing. “I would leave it all behind for someone- sorry, some _thing_ really special.”

Johnny doesn’t miss the way that Jaehyun looks at him, lips parted as he speaks, nor the way he clings onto the back of his sleep shirt when they finally give in and retire to bed later. Johnny knows this as he lies awake, well into the early hours of the morning, watching the stars trail across the sky above them.

While he might not have drowned back when his ship had wrecked and Jaehyun had pulled him to safety, it was quickly becoming apparent that he might eventually submit to the siren song after all.

-

“I come here for peace and quiet,” Jaehyun murmurs from his perch on the highest rock they’d found. They were back on the island, a last chance for Johnny to stretch his legs before the next bout of the storm rolled in. “I can sing here without worrying that I’ll hurt anyone.”

Johnny hums in reply from where he sits below him at the shoreline, feet dangling in the water.

“I’ve yet to hear you sing.”

He’d heard both of Jaehyun’s brothers sing by now - Ten on multiple occasions, and then Sicheng, the middle brother, when Jaehyun had chanced taking him on a sneaky tour of his father’s palace in the dead of night. Both of them had wonderful voices, but it just made him hungry to hear a song from _his_ siren. 

Jaehyun looks down at him from his lofty throne, the ghost of a smirk playing across his features.

“Is this you making a request?”

Johnny raises his eyebrows in return. 

“If you would be so kind, your highness.”

Jaehyun clearly struggles to bite back the smile that threatens to take over his face, but to his credit he manages it well. Johnny expects another waspy remark in response to his quip, so they can fall into their usual back-and-forth banter, but Jaehyun surprises him by turning away ever so slightly. 

Instead Johnny watches, spellbound, as the siren tilts his head back to look at the sky, before opening his mouth to sing. 

Years on, well after this day, he would still never be able to come up with the right words to describe how wonderful Jaehyun’s voice had been. Even _perfect_ doesn’t seem to be enough, would be considered an almost insulting way to refer to the crescendo of notes that rang out over the water, each individual one wrought with emotion. Johnny found that he wanted to laugh and cry at the same time, dance and lie down from despair, overcome with the beauty of his siren’s song.

No wonder people crawled to their deaths for music like this. He rather felt that death would be painless in comparison to living the rest of his days with the absence of Jaehyun’s voice. 

Before he knows it, he’s climbed up the rocks to take his place by the siren’s feet. Jaehyun, on the other hand, must pick up on his movements, as his song eventually slows, coming to an end with one last wavering note. He lets out a soft sigh as he falls silent, the wind whipping through his hair as dark clouds advance on the horizon. 

“Why did you save me?” Johnny asks, barely audible over a distant peal of thunder.

Jaehyun doesn’t answer for a moment, and Johnny takes the chance to once again marvel over the siren’s beauty, a marble statue as he stares down at the human. The sky above them is an almost violent shade of pink, a vibrant forewarning of the storm to come, and the dying light of the setting sun leaves the siren’s hair ablaze with colour. 

Johnny knows then, in that moment, that he’s doomed. 

“Because I wanted you to be mine.” Jaehyun eventually answers him. 

-

He’s sprawled on the bed, poring over maps of countries he’s never even heard of before, when a splash at the water’s edge makes him look up. 

Jaehyun pulls himself out of the pool, shaking off the majority of the excess water soaking him as he makes his way to the bed. Johnny sits up, immediately clearing away a space so Jaehyun can sit next to him. The siren does so, leaning up against the headboard, expression carefully arranged to not give anything away.

It doesn’t worry him at first - he’s noticed that Jaehyun tends to default to quiet when conversation tapers off, instead preferring to watch the world go by in peace. But there’s something about the way he picks at a loose thread on the bed sheets that has Johnny feeling that something definitely needs to be addressed.

“What’s wrong?” He asks quietly, nudging Jaehyun with his foot.

The siren sighs softly, shoulders slumping, and when he turns to look at Johnny there’s an unmistakable glimmer of sadness in his eyes.

“Your ship is ready.” 

“Oh.” Is all Johnny can think to reply.

Above his head, he hears the distant sound of thunder, the pitter-patter of rain loud as it falls against the enchanted barrier that keeps the cave safe from the weather. A rather fitting mood, he thinks.

It’s not as if he’d ever expected anything different.

They’d been to see the Neo just a couple of days ago, and his ship had looked ready to take to the water once more even then. Jaehyun had even confirmed this with one of the workers, sneaking off to replace Ten’s enchantment with his own, leaving Johnny tucked away safely to listen in. Apparently all that had been left to fix was a rip in the sail, and the Neo would be okay to set sail. 

Besides, it’s not as if he and Jaehyun didn’t know that this arrangement, this entire _thing_ between them was always supposed to be temporary. After all, Jaehyun couldn’t hide him away from his brothers forever, and Johnny’s friends also needed to be woken from their deep slumber. They - Johnny included - had lives that awaited them outside the world of the sirens. He and Jaehyun being together was always destined to come to an end.

And yet, Johnny couldn’t help but feel deeply saddened by it all.

Reaching out, he gently tugs Jaehyun’s hand away from the bed sheets. Instead, he holds it in his own, their fingers interlocked. The siren’s skin is still damp and chilled from his swim, and he gently rubs circles into the back of his hand with his thumb.

“Talk to me.” He murmurs, leaning in closer so Jaehyun can hear him.

“I…” Jaehyun trails off, struggling to meet his eyes. His grip tightens on Johnny’s hand, as if afraid the man will pull away from him suddenly. “It’s s-selfish, but I…”

Johnny sighs softly, feeling that he already knows what Jaehyun is about to say. He leans over to cup the siren’s cheek with his free hand, using his grip to gently tilt his face up so he has no choice but to look at him.

“You want me to stay, don’t you?”

Jaehyun’s eyes widen at his question, blush immediately rising to colour his cheeks. Sad as he is, Johnny can’t help but laugh at the reaction. It’s just so endearing, the way the siren practically wears his emotions on his sleeve, out in the open for anyone to see. 

“Was I that obvious?” The siren whispers.

“Kind of,” Johnny replies, thinking back over days, weeks even of lingering touches and fervent glances that he’d pretended not to notice. “I think we both might have been.”

It’s not as though he’d been totally innocent in all of this. 

He’d let Jaehyun tuck himself into his side as they’d laid on the couch together, the siren enthralled by all his tales of his adventures at sea. He’d returned Jaehyun’s sly glances with raised eyebrows and a smirk, revelling in the startled reactions he’d be rewarded with. Whatever feelings the siren had developed for him, he’s sure he’d also felt the stirrings of something similar deep within him. 

Jaehyun moves to clutch at the wrist of the hand holding his face, grip so tight it almost hurts, something akin to hope blooming across his face in a way that makes Johnny’s heart sink.

“Does that mean you will? Stay?”

Johnny wishes he could say yes, wishes he could promise Jaehyun he would stay by his side forever. He thinks, no, he _knows_ he wants it too. But unfortunately, he also knows that it’s just not possible. 

“Jaehyun,” Johnny forces out, surprised at how broken his voice sounds. “We both know I can’t.”

The siren’s expression falls and he pulls away, leaving Johnny’s hand curled around nothing but the air. It would have hurt less if he’d have slapped him away, would have been much less painful than it is to watch how he curls in on himself, arms wrapped around his own torso to act as a means of comfort. 

Johnny’s own arms ache with the urge to pull him close, to hold him and tell him he takes it back, he will stay, he’ll do anything Jaehyun wants him to. 

“I just… I hoped you’d change your mind.”

“I wish I could, but I can’t just abandon everything, as much as I want to.” Johnny whispers in reply.

And it’s true. He has a crew that needs their captain to get them back home to where their families wait for them, where his own mother waits for him to write to her with news of his latest expedition. As tempting as it is to throw that all away for Jaehyun, spend the rest of his mortal days buried in the siren’s embrace, deep down he knows he has to acknowledge that he’s needed elsewhere. 

Jaehyun sniffs quietly, face turned away to stare at the water. Johnny chances sneaking an arm around him, encouraged by the way that the siren doesn’t pull away from him in disgust. He doesn’t exactly melt against him either, but he doesn’t let that deter him as he carefully pulls Jaehyun into his lap. 

“I’ll come visit.” He murmurs into soft pink curls, marvelling how silky they feel against his skin. “Once I’m back home I’ll drop everything to come back to you again.”

Jaehyun lets out a miserable little sigh, reaching out to clutch at Johnny’s sleeve. Johnny traces patterns over the soft skin of his shoulder, keeping his breathing deep and even to try and soothe the siren as he waits for any semblance of a response. He finds himself watching the water too, lost in the movement of the waves as they lap at the rocks, the quiet peace of it all rather at odds with how he feels like he’s drowning.

He jumps when he feels the ghost of a touch against his jawline, glancing down to see Jaehyun finally looking back up at him. 

“If you won’t stay,” He asks, soft even as the words ring in Johnny’s ears like he’d shouted them. “Can I ask just one more favour? Please?”

Johnny leans in until their faces are barely an inch apart, finding himself lost in the deep brown of Jaehyun’s eyes. 

“Anything,” He breathes. “Anything for you.”

“Spend the night with me.” Jaehyun whispers, already leaning up ever closer.

Johnny doesn’t bother to waste their time by answering him with words. Instead he closes that last little bit of distance between them, meeting Jaehyun’s lips with his own.

For all the times he’d dreamt of this, none could ever hope to come close to what he’s actually experiencing right now. The siren’s lips are soft as he kisses Johnny back, sending warmth bleeding through his veins and settling deep into his stomach. They move together, slow and languid, limbs heavy as though they were tangled together deep underwater. Johnny lets out a pleased hum, letting his hands slide down until they circle Jaehyun’s waist, allowing him to lift the siren up and press him down onto the mattress.

It’s only then that they break apart, a startled gasp leaving Jaehyun’s lungs as Johnny comes to hover over him, caging him in. He looks even more heart-achingly beautiful like this (if that’s even possible), lips red and kiss-swollen, hair a curled mess as it spreads out over the sheets below him. Johnny takes a moment to trace his thumb over the siren’s face: over his cheeks, his nose, his jaw, committing each and every feature to memory. 

When he finally reaches Jaehyun’s bottom lip he stops, instead moving to kiss him once again, much more feverish and desperate this time. Jaehyun’s hands come up to weave into his hair, clutching tight at the brown strands to pull him close as if that’ll stop him from leaving him tomorrow. When they part again there’s a shine to his eyes that suggests he might cry, and it hurts Johnny to see it.

“It’s okay,” He murmurs, stroking Jaehyun’s hair from his forehead so he can briefly press his lips there. “It’ll be okay. This isn’t goodbye forever, I promise.”

Jaehyun sniffs, a single tear escaping as he manages to nod. Johnny watches as it trails down his cheek, leaning down to kiss it away before it can soak into the collar of the siren’s shirt. He pulls away to sit up, gently pushing Jaehyun back down when he moves to follow. 

“Stay,” He whispers, rubbing circles into the exposed skin of Jaehyun’s waist, revelling in the way he shivers beneath him. “Let me take care of you.”

The siren doesn’t respond, but he watches as Johnny leans back, fingers fumbling as he undoes the first few buttons of his shirt. Impatient with his struggle, he gives in, pulling the garment over his head in one fluid motion before tossing it off somewhere deeper into the room. It’s cold in the cave, he notes in passing, the chill of the breeze that dances over the water caressing his skin the second it’s exposed. 

Somehow he doesn’t feel it, though he thinks it might have something to do with the heat of Jaehyun’s gaze as he looks up at him, eyes dragging their way over his exposed chest.

“You’re unreal.” He whispers.

Johnny can’t help the shy smile that spreads across his face.

“Thank you, I’m nothing compared to you, though.”

“No,” The siren breathes, looking up at him through heavily-lidded eyes. “You’re something else entirely.”

Jaehyun’s hands roam over his torso when he moves to straddle him once more, his flawless skin a beautiful contrast with the tanned hue of his own body. Johnny finds himself holding his breath as Jaehyun’s touch ghosts across him, stopping every now and then to brush over a mole, or rub carefully at a scar. He realises with a start that Jaehyun comes to rest his hand just below his collarbones, leaving his fingers pressed right over the spot where Johnny’s heart beats away in his chest. 

Johnny smiles sadly, briefly covering Jaehyun’s hand with his own, their fingers intertwined. He lets them remain there for a beat or two, before he moves them back down to the mattress. 

He takes his time undoing Jaehyun’s shirt, trailing the lightest of kisses down his skin as it’s exposed, inch by inch. The siren fidgets underneath him, urging him to go faster, eventually stopping with a huff when he realises it only makes the human slow down. Johnny chuckles lightly, appeasing him by unbuttoning the last few buttons in quick succession, helping Jaehyun free his arms when the shirt finally falls open.

He immediately returns to his task of mapping his way across the siren’s body, stopping every now and then to leave a blemish in his wake. He leaves a particularly dark mark right where he can feel Jaehyun’s pulse fluttering away helplessly in his neck, worrying at the skin until he knows it’ll bruise for days, hoping that it gives him something to remember him by. 

When Jaehyun whimpers below him he ducks down to take one of his nipples into his mouth, an attempt to distract him that succeeds in drawing a strangled cry from the siren.

“Sensitive?” Johnny can’t help but smirk when he pulls away, rubbing his thumb over the bud of the nipple he’d neglected.

“Stop t-teasing,” The siren hisses through clenched teeth, body jolting at Johnny’s touch. “You’re t-torturing me.”

“And I’d have thought you _wanted_ this dragging out.” Johnny murmurs in reply. 

But, ever one to appease, he moves to curl his fingers around the waistband of Jaehyun’s pants, slowly dragging them down. 

Jaehyun’s cock is just as beautiful as the rest of him, flushed the same soft pink colour as his lips as it curves up towards his abdomen. He lets out the breathiest of moans as Johnny takes it in his hand, gently stroking his fingers up and down his length in reverence. Johnny keeps his touch feather-light and slow, revelling in the way the siren clings onto him like he’s the only thing grounding him to the earth right at this moment. 

It’s only when he feels Jaehyun’s hips start to spasm, a warning sign that he’s taking it too far, that he pulls his hand away with a final flick of the wrist, fingers wet with precome. He leans down to press a kiss to the siren’s hip, nosing against the skin, briefly letting himself get lost in the scent of sea salt that has come to remind him of Jaehyun over the past few weeks. 

“Do you…?” He asks, sliding a careful hand between the siren’s thighs, rubbing at the soft skin there for clarification.

“Y-Yes.” Jaehyuns stammers out immediately, rolling his hips down to meet Johnny’s touch. “Please, gods, yes.”

Johnny nods in reply, sitting back with the full intention to get up and look for something that’ll help him ease his way into Jaehyun’s body, when he’s stopped by a hand clutching at his wrist.

“No-” Jaehyun blushes furiously, a flush spreading all the way down his chest. It contrasts beautifully with the myriad of marks Johnny had left dotted across his skin. “Y-You- You don’t need to, I’m m-made for it.”

Johnny frowns down at him in confusion.

“Made for what?”

Jaehyun lets out an embarrassed whine, refusing to meet his eyes as he urges Johnny closer. Using his grip on his wrist, he guides the human’s hand between his legs to rest against his entrance, the skin there already damp. Johnny’s breath hitches as his first finger presses against the ring of muscle, Jaehyun’s body taking him in with little more than a quiet whimper.

“ _Oh_.” He breathes. “I get it.”

Jaehyun was right, his body clearly is made for this, Johnny’s fingers meeting little resistance as he gradually works him open. Still, he moves carefully, pumping one finger in and out of him slowly, only adding the second, and then eventually the third, when he’s sure the siren definitely won’t feel pain from it. He relishes in the way Jaehyun slowly falls apart from his ministrations, the loveliest sounds leaving his mouth as he sobs and writhes beneath him when he crooks his fingers to rub against that sweet spot. 

When he leans down to press his mouth to where his fingers disappear into the other’s body, fucking his tongue in alongside them, Jaehyun lets out a wail that has his vision briefly whiting out as the sound rings in his ears. Minutes later, Jaehyun is the one that undoes his pants for him, the siren’s usual grace lost to his feverish desire for them both to be naked. Johnny barely has the chance to discard the clothing before sharp nails are digging into his hips, trying to pull him back towards the warm body waiting for him on the bed. 

“Be patient,” Johnny laughs, using the mess on his fingers to prepare himself. “You won’t die if you have to wait a few more seconds.”

“You don’t know that.” Jaehyun grumbles in reply, throwing an arm over his eyes dramatically. 

Johnny hisses when he touches his own cock, already over-sensitive and hanging heavy between his legs from being neglected for so long. It twitches when he moves to press the head to Jaehyun’s entrance, making him grit his teeth at the feeling. 

Thunder rumbles somewhere high above them, and Jaehyun is hot as he pushes in slowly. He moves without stopping, beckoned on by the way the siren’s body tightens around his cock, almost seeming to be welcoming him in. Jaehyun throws his head back against the pillow, hair fanned out around him like a halo as he mumbles something that doesn’t quite reach Johnny’s ears. 

It feels like forever passes before he finally bottoms out, pressed so flush to Jaehyun there’s barely a hair’s breadth between them. He pulls away from the siren briefly as he readjusts their position, knees already aching from where he’s knelt up on the bed. Jaehyun’s arms immediately reach out to grab at him, a look of panic in his eyes, as though afraid Johnny is already leaving him. 

“It’s okay,” He mumbles, leaning down to kiss him. “I’m here, I’m not going anywhere yet.”

Jaehyun makes a pitiful noise, wrapping his arms around his neck to keep Johnny pulled close against him. Johnny obliges, whispering what he hopes are soothing words into his ear, rubbing circles over his hip as he does so. He waits patiently, half-expecting Jaehyun to give him some sort of signal that he’s ready, but instead the siren clenches tight around him however long later, rolling his hips down so suddenly it startles a moan out of him. 

It’s as though the world melts away around them, leaving just the two of them together, safe in their cave. 

Johnny sets a pace that’s firm, not too hard or soft, just the right amount of drag as he thrusts in and out of the siren’s body. For how loud he’d been during the build up to this moment, Jaehyun is surprisingly quiet now in the climax of it all, only the softest of breathy sounds leaving his lungs as he presses his face against the muscle of Johnny’s good shoulder. Still, he can’t hide the way his body reacts to Johnny’s movements, walls clenching tight around the human’s cock on every thrust.

Johnny presses his lips to his neck once more, back to the spot where he’d left a bruise earlier. He finds some of the colour has faded already, perhaps another quality to the siren’s powers that he hadn’t known about previously, but he renews it with determination. He feels a moan vibrate its way down Jaehyun’s throat, and when he pulls away, satisfied with his work, he finds fingers tangle in his hair to pull his head back sharply.

Jaehyun’s eyes practically glow as he looks up at Johnny, expression a mix of pleasure and other emotions Johnny doesn’t want to ruin the moment by ruminating on. 

“ _F-Faster_.” He pleads, the heat of his breath fanning over Johnny’s cheek.

Johnny obeys, clutching hard at Jaehyun’s thighs, pulling them around his waist so he can fuck ever deeper and harder into him. He digs his fingers into the flesh, soft and yielding underneath his grasp, using his grip to bring Jaehyun down to meet each thrust, spurred on by the cries it draws from the siren. The grip around his neck turns bruising, vaguely cutting off his air supply and leaving his head spinning, but it only serves to make the entire experience that bit more heady. 

He can feel Jaehyun must be close now, so suddenly tight around him that it’s difficult for him to keep up the pace he’d set, too much resistance for him to be able to pull all the way back out. He’s no better himself, that familiar cramping sensation building to hang heavy in his abdomen, weighing him down. Johnny slows in response, moving one of his hands to take hold of Jaehyun’s cock once more, gently stroking him in time with his thrusts. 

It only takes a few flicks of his wrist, pausing on the third to thumb at the slit of Jaehyun’s dick, before the siren’s eyes are rolling back in his head as he comes with a fluttery gasp. Jaehyun spills over Johnny’s hand and both their stomachs, head falling back against the headboard with a resounding _thud_. Johnny’s own release follows almost immediately after, hips stuttering as he grinds his cock down against the siren’s prostate until they’re both whining from oversensitivity. 

Jaehyun’s chest heaves with the frenzy of his breathing, and he finally lets go of the human’s neck to bring his hands up, hiding his face away from Johnny’s concerned eyes. Johnny watches, waits patiently as he strokes gentle fingers up and down Jaehyun’s sides in an attempt to help him calm down. His heart sinks when he realises it’s futile, as the siren’s body begins to shake with muffled sobs. 

“Don’t cry.” He whispers desperately, leaning down to kiss Jaehyun’s forehead, even as a tear escapes down his own cheek before he can stop it.

-

The sun has barely risen when he takes his first step back onto the Neo. 

It’s as if the wreck had never happened - his ship looks exactly the same as it had before. Perhaps even better, brand new like when he’d bought it four years ago, a prize to mark the victory of him being promoted to captain. Johnny runs his hand over the railing in awe, unable to stop the smile that rises to his face when he feels the familiar warmth of the wood beneath his fingertips. Despite it all, he’d missed this. 

Jaehyun stands watching him from the top of the gangway, arms wrapped around himself with a vaguely distraught look on his face. It pains Johnny to see it, and it only hurts more when he acknowledges that he’s the reason for it. He’d been the first to wake earlier that morning, curled around the siren with the sheets wrapped tightly around the pair of them. Jaehyun had been slumped against his chest, breath hot and even against Johnny’s skin, cheeks wet with tears that he must have cried while he was asleep. 

And Johnny had held him close as if that would be enough to keep them from being pulled apart. 

Now, he holds his arms out for him once more, a mixture of relief and sadness coursing through him when Jaehyun trips into his embrace. He holds his siren close, face buried against the mess of his hair, tangled from the early morning wind, trying to memorise this feeling of having him in his arms. Jaehyun’s fingers curl to clutch at the leather of his coat, recovered from his quarters and returned to him before he’d boarded. 

“I’ll miss you.” The siren’s voice is barely audible, words spoken more to the air than to Johnny himself.

“And I’ll miss you too.” Johnny replies, brushing the top of Jaehyun’s head with the gentlest of kisses. 

Somewhere off to his left, Taeyong begins to stir. 

Jaehyun had helped him move all of his friends back onto the ship while they were still unconscious from the enchantment the siren had placed on them, and now it seemed like they were finally coming around. Johnny can’t quite reconcile the feelings of both sadness and happiness that build up inside of him. He’d missed them all, missed them so much, his friends his family more than his actual blood relatives were, but this was what made his separation from Jaehyun concrete.

Sighing to himself, he steps away, trying to ignore the hurt look he receives from the siren. In one fluid motion he pulls his coat off, tucking it around Jaehyun’s shoulders, something more material and tangible than the mark that’s quickly fading from his neck.

“To remember me by.” He explains, watching as Jaehyun strokes over one of the sleeves.

“I already have your j-journal.” The siren laughs, a tear escaping down his cheek.

That was true, he’d handed over the notebook to him not even ten minutes ago. _Another one for the collection_ , he’d whispered, watching Jaehyun tuck it underneath his shirt, directly over his heart.

“You do,” He replies. “But I want you to have this too.”

Jaehyun nods, reaching out to take hold of his hand. Johnny expects him to lace their fingers together, so it’s a surprise when he instead brings Johnny’s wrist to his lips, pressing down against the skin so briefly he would’ve imagined it if not for the burning pain that courses through him.

“So you remember me in return.” He clarifies, gesturing towards the new scar that finds its home on Johnny’s wrist. 

Johnny smiles sadly at it. 

“Thank you.” He whispers, leaning in for one last kiss. 

Jaehyun clings to him, a flurry of limbs and leather as he kisses him hard like he’s trying to steal the very breath from his lungs, one last memento from the human. Johnny happily gives it up to him. 

“Goodbye Jaehyun.” He whispers against the siren’s lips when they part. “I’ll miss you.”

Jaehyun doesn’t answer as he pulls away, turning to jump into the ocean without so much as a glance back at him. Johnny watches him go, staring at the water until his eyes grow blurry, until there’s a careful hand on his upper arm, Taeyong’s concerned voice calling his name, barely more than a whisper. 

It might just be his imagination, but he’s sure he can hear the echoes of the siren’s lament ringing out across the ocean as they sail away. 

\- 

It’s a relief when his crew all come to, all of them dazed and confused, but ultimately unharmed. 

It’s late when Johnny tells Taeyong the full story of what happened when his first-mate manages to corner him in the kitchen, forcing him to sit down to share a bottle of rum with him. The rest of the crew are in bed, still exhausted from their ordeal, leaving the pair of them able to talk without interruption. The younger man whistles softly as Johnny’s tale draws to an end.

“And you left, just like that?” He asks.

“Just like that.” Johnny echoes, words tinged with misery.

Taeyong is quiet for a moment, before he empties the rest of the bottle into Johnny’s glass.

“Do you regret it?”

Johnny sighs, swirling the liquid in his glass. The colour rather reminds him of the colour of Jaehyun’s eyes, and he feels nausea rise up within him. 

“I’m not sure.” He whispers in reply. He’s not sure exactly what regret Taeyong could be referring to, but he doesn’t want to dwell on it. Not now, while the pain sits raw in his chest. 

They arrive back in port with little fanfare. 

Johnny smiles as he watches Mark run into Lucas’ arms, the couple enveloped in each other immediately as though it would kill them to part again. He can’t help but feel the pang of sadness that watching the reunion brings him, and he turns away before his emotions get the better of him.

Taeyong walks with him until they reach that familiar fork in the road, each separate path leading to their houses.

“See you at the tavern tonight?” His friend asks. “It won’t be the same without you there, Captain.”

“Maybe,” Johnny forces a smile, though he knows it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “I’m tired, but I’ll try and stop by for at least one drink.”

“Great,” Taeyong hoists his bag further up his bag. “Enjoy the peace of finally being home.”

“You too.”

But when the front door of his townhouse swings shut behind him, Johnny realises that he’s not home. This is nothing but an empty shell of the concept, a mere backdrop that masquerades as what he would call his home. Home is no longer a building, it’s something beyond that.

Home is a week away across the ocean, home sits upon a deserted island and sings arias to the sun, the moon, the stars, and anything else that will listen. 

And perhaps he still sings for Johnny now. 

-

He and his crew go on more expeditions as they always do. Two, three, maybe even four or more of them, Johnny stops keeping count once he realises a year has passed since he parted from Jaehyun. Now they find themselves on their way home once again, the usual excitement rippling through the crowd of his friends at the prospects of being on land for an extended amount of time for the first time in months. 

Johnny can’t say he feels the same. 

A gentle hand on his shoulder distracts him from where he’d been focused on the waves cast out across the surface of the ocean, as the Neo set a steady course for their home port. Turning his head, he’s met with the sight of Taeyong and his usual gentle smile.

“Are you okay?” His friend asks softly.

Johnny isn’t, and he knows this, and he’s rather convinced that Taeyong knows this too, but he still finds himself nodding.

“Of course,” He sighs. “Just excited to get home to a proper bed, I guess.”

Taeyong hums, coming to join him where he leans against the railing. They fall silent for a bit, both watching the water, before Taeyong speaks again.

“You’ve always been a terrible liar, you know.”

Johnny laughs at that, feeling some of the tension immediately bleed out of his body. Trust his first-mate to know him so well.

“I just think my heart isn’t in it anymore.” He admits. 

“I don’t think it has been for quite a while now,” Taeyong agrees with him. “Definitely not since our whole _thing_ last year.”

Johnny sighs as the memory of Jaehyun’s tearful goodbye comes unbidden to his mind.

“I think you might be right.” 

Taeyong shuffles closer, moving to lean his head against his shoulder. Johnny smiles at the action, leaning his own head against Taeyong’s in return, revelling in the comfort it brings him.

“So, what now?” The younger man asks him.

“I don’t know. Maybe we get into port and I call it all a day, I hadn’t thought that far ahead, really.”

Taeyong nods, careful not to disturb either of them. 

“I’ll miss you, but I’d rather you be happy than carry on as you are. I’ve never seen you look so defeated.”

Johnny moves to stand back up again, turning away when he feels the sting of tears in his eyes. 

“I’ll miss you too.” He manages to whisper, staring off into the horizon in an attempt to compose himself. 

Taeyong doesn’t say anything, but the way he rubs at his arm says more than words ever could. Johnny swallows, closing his eyes and willing the tears away. The last thing he needs is for the rest of the crew to see him like this. 

When he’s confident he’s calmed down he sniffs, taking a deep breath as he opens his eyes once more. And what he sees is almost enough to make his heart stop. 

A familiar-looking rock formation sits on the horizon, standing out from its surroundings due to its unnatural shape. A noise of disbelief leaves his lips as he recognises it, hope swelling in his chest so suddenly he feels dizzy with it all. 

Taeyong must spot it too as, when Johnny turns back around, there’s sadness in his friend’s eyes.

“Is this where we say goodbye?” His first-mate tries to laugh, his voice cracking slightly at the end of his sentence. “So soon, just like that?”

Johnny leans down to cup the younger man’s face in his hands, pressing a fond kiss to his forehead.

“I don’t think it would ever truly be a goodbye,” He murmurs. “I’m sure you’ll find a way to visit me.”

“Of course, I’d love nothing more than to risk being eaten just to see you again,” Taeyong sniffs, clutching at his wrists. “Promise me you’ll take care of yourself?”

“Of course,” Johnny repeats back to him. “You’ve always been destined to be captain, I guess this is the perfect chance.”

Taeyong rolls his eyes, another laugh escaping his lips, the sound watery with tears.

“I’ll look after her,” He replies, patting the railing fondly. “She’ll always be yours though, no matter what.”

Johnny smiles at that, pulling his friend into a tight hug. For a brief moment, he wonders if he’s making the right decision, if he’s just letting his heart lead him on some foolish quest. Maybe he should think this over - head back to his townhouse, sit in his armchair by the fire for a little while and decide if giving up life as he knows it would be worth it.

But then again, he’s never been one for thinking things over. 

Taeyong is the one who pulls away, head tilted back to look him in the eyes. 

“Take one of the rafts,” He tells him. “At least that way I know you’ll have _some_ way to make it back to port if you need to.”

Johnny does as he’s told, untying their smallest raft and watching as it drops down into the water. He turns to squeeze Taeyong’s hand once more, trying to convey all the words and emotions running through his mind in just the one gesture. 

“Tell the crew I said goodbye, will you?” He whispers, afraid he’ll break down into tears again if he speaks any louder.

“Of course,” Taeyong smiles. “Good luck, Johnny.”

Piloting a small raft is a very different experience to steering a large ship through the water, but years of sea-faring means it comes fast to Johnny. It doesn’t take him long to reach the rock formation - the position of the sun tells him maybe about a half hour - and as he advances past it, he tries to find the exact spot they’d crashed into all those months ago.

The heat of the sun beats down on him when he makes the decision to drop anchor. He sits back to catch his breath, eyes roaming over the ocean on the lookout for anything unusual. Nothing immediately appears to be out of the ordinary and he sighs to himself, closing his eyes as he wonders if this had all been a mistake. 

He’s not sure how much time passes, but it’s once he decides that maybe the best course of action is to pull up anchor and set off in pursuit of the Neo that he hears it. It’s faint, barely audible even as he strains to listen, but it’s there. 

The tiniest snatch of a song, coming from somewhere in the vast ocean below him. 

“Jaehyun?” He whispers, leaning down so his face is mere inches away from the surface of the water. 

For a moment, there’s nothing but the sound of the waves as they crash against the hull of his raft, accompanied by the steady thrum of his heartbeat deep in his chest. Then, the water darkens, turning a dark-blue, almost black, as a pair of hands reach out and tangle their way into his hair, clutching onto him tightly.

The last thing he sees before he’s pulled underwater is a flash of pink. 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading! comments, kudos and bookmarks are always super appreciated if you enjoyed this.
> 
> and to the mods: thank you for organising the fest, and for accommodating my request so last minute!
> 
> [♥ twitter](https://twitter.com/suhnbeams)  
> [♥ curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/suhnbeams)


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